1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to a dual-axis hinge, and more particularly to a dual-axis hinge with bi-directional rotatability.
2. Description of Related Art
People use numerous kinds of portable electronic devices in their daily lives, such as pagers, cellular phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These devices bring great convenience for people, so manufacturers make every endeavor to design more user-friendly products in order to meet the demand of consumers.
One major improvement is the design of a foldable device. There are two advantages to this design. First, the amount of information displayed at a time increases because the size of the screen can be made larger; second, the operation interface can contain more functions because the arrangement of the interface can be made diversified. The foldable device includes three parts, i.e. an upper cover, a body and a hinge module coupled between the upper cover and the body. In general, this kind of foldable structure can only be opened and closed in one direction, which may limit the practical use of the foldable device. Furthermore, the screen, in order to match the cover and body, must be shaped like a rectangle and oriented in only one direction, which is not convenient for users to read documents or websites that are oriented otherwise.
The new designs provide different operating modes, in which the upper cover can open and close in two orthogonal directions selectively, making the screen presented in either portrait or landscape modes to fit the visual demand.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional portable electronic device 100, which can open and close in two orthogonal directions selectively. The portable electronic device 100 includes a body 110, an upper cover 120 and a hinge 130.
FIG. 1 shows the upper cover 120 of the portable electronic device 100 opened in landscape mode. In the landscape mode, the upper cover 120 is attached to an embedded structure 111 by an indentation 121, and positioned by a lock member 113 so as to prevent the upper cover 120 from being detached from the body 110 and to make the electronic device 100 fold up smoothly.
FIG. 2 shows the upper cover 120 of the portable electronic device 100 opened in portrait mode. When the upper cover 120 is closed to the body 110, the lock member 113 is pushed first to release its lock in the lock hole 122, and then the upper cover 120 can be opened as shown in FIG. 2. When the upper cover 120 is opened, the lock member 123 positions in the lock hole 114 (shown in FIG. 1) of the raised base 112, preventing the upper cover 120 from being detached from the body 110 and making the electronic device 100 fold up smoothly.
However, there are some disadvantages in the known portable electronic device. For example,
1. Since the hinge 130 is a right angle hinge on the top surface of the body 110, the upper cover 120 and the body 110 must be designed to have some corresponding indentations and raised parts. These parts may degrade the appearance of the expensive electronic product and therefore make it look cheap.
2. Regarding general operating habits of users or long-term service products, the raised parts are easily damaged by impacts and also affect the convenience of input by interfering with handling postures of users.